MURFREESBORO, Tenn. – Florida Atlantic was fighting to keep its bowl hopes alive when it faced Middle Tennessee on Saturday.

Instead, Middle Tennessee landed a knockout punch to the Owls’ bowl chances with a 38-14 victory at Floyd Stadium.

“We got beat soundly today by a very good football team,” said FAU coach Howard Schnellenberger. “It’s been a long time since I’ve had a football team that was beat so decisive in every aspect of the game. We’ve got a whole bunch of people injured and I don’t know who we are going to suit up and play. As always, a game like this is not as bad as it appears but this one is hard to mitigate. We’ll do the things we know how to do to get us back on the field and be representative in the game next week.”

After going to bowl games in 2007 and 2008, the Owls won’t play in the post-season for the second consecutive season.

The Owls will bring this disappointing season to a close next week when they play host to Troy.

“It’s real tough,” said senior defensive tackle Dino Cox. “We’ll just have to lay it on the line next week against Troy and try to leave a legacy at FAU.”

FAU, which had won its last three Sun Belt Conference games, was over-matched by Middle Tennessee (5-6, 4-3) and had no answer Blue Raiders senior quarterback Dwight Dasher who threw for two touchdowns and ran for two more.

“It’s kind of sad because Middle Tennessee had won the last two years on the last plays and we wanted to come out here and give it our all,” said senior linebacker Michael Lockley. “They made the plays we didn’t make. The caught the balls we didn’t catch and they got the breaks we didn’t get. They beat us. They flat-out beat us. The scoreboard doesn’t lie.”

Dasher had been a disappointment this season, but enjoyed his best game of the season vs. the Owls.

Middle Tennessee, which also needed a victory Saturday and one next week to become bowl eligible, racked up 445 yards in total offense, including 287 on the ground.

FAU scored on the first possession of the game when senior quarterback Jeff Van Camp connected with senior wide receiver Lester Jean on a 4th-down and 7 play from the MTSU 32-yard line.

However, FAU didn’t reach the end zone again until the fourth quarter.

Van Camp was intercepted three times in the second half as the Blue Raiders scored 31 unanswered points.

“It’s another case of us beating ourselves,” Van Camp said. “Give it to them, they played hard, but that’s a team we should beat.”

GameBrowser: Middle Tennessee38, FAU 14

GameChanger

With the score tied at 7. FAU linebacker Yourhighness Morgan picked off Dwight Dasher early in the second quarter and the Owls drove from the MTSU 46-yard line to the 9. However, FAU not only didn’t score a touchdown but came away with no points after Ross Gornall missed a 27-yard field goal, squandering an opportunity to re-take the lead.

Moving forward

Lester Jean had 100 receiving yards on eight catches, including touchdown catches of 32 and 23 yards. …FAU linebacker Yourhighness Morgan recorded his first career interception.

Moving backwards

The FAU defense had been making great strides, but in an important game didn’t show up. ...The Owls were only flagged for five penalties, but two of those were costly intentional grounding calls.

Key stats

15 – Career TD receptions for Jean, who moved into second place on the all-time list at FAU